Transport path comprising signal devices



y 1956 c. F. VEENEMANS 2,743,808

TRANSPORT PATH COMPRISING SIGNAL DEVICES Filed NOV. 19, 1952 INVENTORCORNELIS FREDERIK VEENEMANS AGENT United States Patent TRANSPORT PATHCOMPRISING SIGNAL DEVICES Cornelis Frederik Veenemans, Eindhoven,Netherlands,

assignor to Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, Hartford, Conn.,as trustee pelled directly over the path to the eifect that furtherarticles present on the path are indirectly propelled by said means andalso carried forward over the path. A transport path of this type hasthe advantage that the means carrying the articles forward over the pathneed to extend only over a comparatively short part of the path, sinceeach article in the path propels the next following article. Such atransport device may successively be used for furnaces into whicharticles are continuously introduced at one end and delivered at theother end. The use of a transport path of the type referred to thenyields the advantage that the means propelling the articles need not beheat proof, since they are situated completely outside the furnace. Whenpropelling the articles over the trans port path in an indirect mannerthere is a risk, however, that if for some reason or other one of thearticles jams during its travel, the succeeding articles keep movingthus occasioning the phenomenon similar to the packing of ice. As amatter of fact, the driving mechanism of the transport path keeps movingundiminished upon stagnation and the workman supervising the transportpath is not warned that something is wrong with the stagnant transportpath.

This inconvenience is mitigated by the present invention by combiningthe aforesaid transport path with a signal device co-operating with oneor more of the indirectly propelled articles such that deviations fromthe normal state of motion of indirectly propelled articles areannounced.

The invention may be used with particular advantage if at least part ofthe articles conveyed over the transport path are hidden from directview by screens or the like, for example in the case of annealingfurnaces or the like or if a transport path extends from one factoryroom through a narrow opening in the wall into an adjacent factory room.

Signalization of deviations from the state of motion may be effected ina manner such that if a deviation oc' curs the means available at thebeginning of the path and propelling the articles are automaticallydisengaged. To this effect, for example, each article may be moved pasta photoelectric cell at the end of the path, thus intercepting a lightbeam incident on the photo-cell. In the case of stagnation the beamfalls unimpeded on the photo-cell and the photo-cell current thusproduced will stop the driving means.

Sometimes it will, however, be sufficient that deviations from theprescribed state of motion are announced to the supervising workman sothat he may interfere and stop the driving means. Such announcement ispreferably made acoustically.

In accordance with the invention, a suitable form of such a signaldevice comprises a number of bodies, for example metal balls, and abafiie, the bodies behind the last article on the path beingsuccessively removed from the path by the motion of said article andfalling on the baffle. The said articles may everytirne be laid behindthe last article on the path. In practice it has been found that thisexceedingly simple signal device has a high reliability of service.

in order that the invention may be readily carried into effect, it willnow be described with reference to the accompanying diagrammaticdrawing, given by way of example, in which Fig. 1 is a side view.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a transport path comprising such a signaldevice; and

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary side elevation view of another embodiment of myinvention.

The transport path comprises a bottom 1 and edge portions 2 and 3guiding the articles 4 to be conveyed from A to B. The transport path ismounted on a number of supports 5 and surrounded over part of its lengthby a hood-shaped structure 6 by which the articles on the path arehidden from direct view and which may, for example, form part of afurnace jacket.

At A the bottom 1 exhibits an elongated recess, the edges of which aredesignated 7 and in which fits the upper portion 2% of a conveyer beltpassing over rollers 9 and id, either one of which may, for example, bedriven by an electric motor. Said conveyer belt carries a number ofprojecting parts 11 and moves in the direction of the arrow (1 Therelative spacing between two successive projecting parts it on theconveyer belt 8 is so chosen that one or more of the articles 4 fitbetween them. Said articles may, for example, be bodies to be subjectedto a heat treatment in the furnace 6 or support-s each carrying a numberof bodies to be subjected to a heat treatment. As may be seen from thedrawing the bodies 4a, 4b and 4c are those bodies of the continuous rowof articles extending from A to B, which are directly propelled by theconveyer belt ti. Owing to the motion imparted to the said articles, thearticles located more to the right in the drawing are indireetlypropelled so that in the absence of stagnation they leave the right-handpart of the furnce 6 at a rate corresponding to the speed of theconveyer belt 8. If, however, anyone of the indirectly propelledarticles becomes stagnant and the driving continues the supply ofarticles to the furnace takes place unimpeded, so that at a giveninstant the articles in the furnace pack together and the wholepassageway is choked. The consequent breakdown may sometimes evennecessitate breaking open of the furnace. in this instance the articlesare subjected to an exceedingiy long heat treatment in the oven, whichshould naturally be avoided. Unless safety measures be taken this meansthat the workman supervising the transport path must continuously keepan eye on the outlet of the furnace.

In order to mitigate the last-mentioned inconvenience a signal device isprovided which announces the regular motion of the articles over thetransport path. In this instance said device comprises a number of balls12, situated behind the last article 4d on the transport path, and atray 13 placed beneath the transport path and acting as a bafiie. If thearticles are moving regularly over the path the workman hears theregular fall of balls from the end of the path into the tray 13, whichpermits distant supervision of the transport path. In the case ofstagnation on the transport path the rate at which the balls are fallingfrom the path on the baffle is slower and in the ease of completestagnation the balls cease dropping. Pro vided between the balls and thesurface of the article 4d facing the balls is a metal strip 14 whichalso falls on the battle after all the balls have fallen on the latter.Then the workman knows that the transport path must again be filled withballs and the rearmost article must be removed from the transport path.Of course, means may be provided for filling the transport path withsound-producing bodies automatically.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 3, in which thearticles 20, the. bottom 21 of the right-hand part of the transport pathand an edge portion 22 thereof are shown on a larger scale, the tray 23acting as a battle is also provided at the end of the path. In thisconstruction, however, the balls 24 are not laid each time behind thelast article on'the path, but at the beginning of the path i. e. at A inFigs. 1 and 2 between the articles. This has the advantage that at theend of the path only the finished articles (denoted 20a in Fig. 3) needto be lifted from the path, if desired automatically. If the tray 23 isfurther provided with an outlet 25a returning the balls to the beginningof the path, no supervising workman is required at the end of the path.

As may be seen from Fig. 3 the balls between the bodies 20 are providedin recesses 25 of said bodies which permits the bodies to be propelledindirectly without difficulty. Of course, a bottomless frame for theballs may alternatively be placed between every two articles of the rowon the path.

What I claim is:

1. A transport system and signal device for a plurality of articles overa predetermined path, comprising means to directly propel said articlesover said path, said articles being further propelled indirectly by saidmeans over said path, said signal device co-acting with at least one ofthe indirectly propelled articles to signal acoustically any deviationfrom the prescribed movement of said articles and comprising a metalreceptacle, a plurality of metal balls in front of the article to beremoved first before the other articles in said transport system, saidmetal balls being adapted to fall successively from said path into saidreceptacle.

2. A transport system and signal device for a plurality of articles overa predetermined path, comprising means to directly propel said articlesover said path, said articles being further propelled indirectly by saidmeans over said path, said signal device co-acting with at least one ofthe indirectly propelled articles to signal acoustically any deviationfrom the regular prescribed movement of said articles and comprising ametal receptacle, a plurality of metal balls in front of the article tobe removed first before the other articles in said transport system, ametal strip, said metal balls being adapted to fall successively fromsaid path into said receptacle followed by said metal strip.

No references cited.

